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Benjamin Franklin High School is a public magnet high school in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Commonly nicknamed "Franklin" or "Ben Franklin", this school should not be confused with Franklin High School in Franklin, Louisiana. Ben Franklin was founded in 1957 as a school for gifted children. In 1990, it moved to its current location on the campus of the University of New Orleans (UNO) in the Lake Terrace/Lake Oaks neighborhood of Orleans Parish, near Lake Pontchartrain. The school was damaged by several feet of flood water due to Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005, and efforts to reopen the school were covered by nationwide news agencies. Although the school is part of the Orleans Parish School District, it operates as a charter school under UNO. Ben Franklin has a selective admissions process, and according to CBS News is a "magnet for the city's smart and motivated students."〔 It has been named a Blue Ribbon School four times by the U.S. Department of Education, and was ranked 16 on the 2009 "America's Best High Schools" list by U.S. News & World Report. The class of 2008 produced 17 National Achievement Semifinalists, the most of any school in the United States. Ben Franklin is a member of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and offers a variety of sports programs. Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs. Because of its selective admissions policies, the school was accused in 1996 of an admissions bias against African Americans. Notable alumni of the school include Wynton Marsalis, a Pulitzer Prize winning trumpeter. == History == Benjamin Franklin High School opened as a school for gifted children in 1957 under the direction of School Superintendent James F. Redmond and Principal Naomi Gardberg.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Gardberg-Guichard Scholarship ) 〕 At the time, schools under the Orleans Parish School Board were segregated.〔 In 1960, Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana ordered the desegregation of New Orleans schools in ''Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board''. In response to the order, 2,000 youths surged through New Orleans streets in demonstrations against school integration on November 16, 1960. Only eight Franklin students were absent from class. A Time Magazine article later stated that Redmond's "proudest memory of the first day of integration three weeks ago, when truancy was rife, is that 'my Franklin kids stuck with it.'" From its inception, Franklin was designed to be a public school for gifted students, and admissions requirements included having a 120 IQ.〔 Following an appeal of ''Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board'', the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stated in 1962 that Franklin was "one of the finest schools in the country for superior students" and suggested that African American students who met the school's exacting admissions requirements be admitted. Under pressure from federal courts, Franklin became the first public high school in New Orleans to desegregate in 1963. For over 30 years the school was housed in a historic courthouse on Carrollton Avenue in Uptown New Orleans. Built in 1855, the building had served as the Jefferson Parish Courthouse until the City of Carrollton was incorporated into New Orleans. By 1987, the building had fallen into disrepair and lacked basic air conditioning. Despite these conditions, Franklin maintained a reputation as a place of academic excellence. In the late 1980s, the Orleans Parish School Board leased land from the University of New Orleans (UNO) and built a larger and more modern campus for Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin moved to this current Lake Terrace/Lake Oaks campus during the 1989–1990 school year.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Regional History - New Orleans Collection )〕 The building was designed by E. Eean Mcnaughton Architects and received an honor award from the American Institute of Architects Gulf States Region in 1994.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL, New Orleans, LA )〕 Visitors to the school included President Bill Clinton, who spoke with Franklin students on April 30, 1993 about his plans to create a National Service Initiative. Ben Franklin is located near the London Avenue Canal. Like most other UNO buildings and New Orleans public schools, Ben Franklin was damaged by several feet of flood water due to Hurricane Katrina. The school was closed before the storm hit on August 29, 2005, and remained closed for several months. Over US $3 million in damage was caused by the storm. School administration, faculty, parents, students, alumni, and volunteers participated in a massive cleanup effort, without funding from and independent of the Orleans Parish School Board. The effort was chronicled by several nationwide news agencies. After Katrina, Ben Franklin received support from across the nation and around the world. On December 8, 2005, the United States Ambassador to Germany, William R. Timken, Jr., accepted a "Band of Friendship" from the students of Clay Oberschule, Ben Franklin's official GAPP partner school in Berlin, Germany.〔 Monetary contributions included $10,000 from the government of France and a $70,000 grant from the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries. The school re-opened as a charter school on January 17, 2006, the 300th birthday of its namesake Benjamin Franklin. The re-opening ceremony was held in the previously flooded-out gym. The gym had been the most severely damaged structure on campus; all of the floor tiles had to be removed and replaced, and the wind-damaged ceiling had to be repaired. In 2007, the school celebrated its 50th anniversary with a free reception. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Benjamin Franklin High School (New Orleans)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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